5 Ways to Make Social Media More Likeable | Likeable
From the very beginning, Likeable’s mission has been to create a more likeable world. For more than a decade, we’ve been delivering on that mission by helping brands create smart, fast, and likeable content that adds value to consumers and drives real business results.
But we know that there’s a lot more we can do. After all, social media is about much more than just branded content. In fact, social media was designed as a set of tools that would bring all of humanity closer together. However, in recent years, it’s grown increasingly toxic and divisive. Our feeds are filled with spammy ads and polarizing content, and every day, there’s a new Twitter fight, negative news story, or reason to feel bad about ourselves.
It’s time to change that.
On February 26th, we’re launching #BeLikeableDay, a global movement dedicated to making social media a more positive environment through collective acts of kindness online. On this day, we’re asking everyone around the world to post at least one nice thing on social media.
Here are just five ways you can join the movement:
1. Pay a friend a compliment on Instagram. It’s so easy to feel self-conscious and insecure on Instagram, where everyone is perfect (or at least tries to be). Give someone a confidence boost with a simple compliment or message of encouragement.
2. Promote someone else’s work on Twitter. All of those tweets sharing “some personal news” are well and good, but what if we took a break from the self-promotion to sing someone else’s praises instead? Whose work has spoken to you recently? Tweet about it.
3. Post on Facebook sharing gratitude for people in your life. In a sea of memes and political commentary, break through with a message of positivity by expressing gratitude for five people in your life. Not only will you make them feel great, but you’ll feel better too.
4. Give an unsolicited recommendation on LinkedIn. Who are the top three people you’ve loved working with the most during your career? Make their day and publish a recommendation on LinkedIn that explains why anyone else would be lucky to work with them too.
5. Say sorry, thank you, or really, anything nice online. Social media has made it really easy to spread hate, but it’s just as easy to spread joy. Choose to spread joy.
And if changing the world isn’t incentive enough, know this: Committing acts of kindness even lowers your blood pressure. According to Dr. David R. Hamilton, author of The 5 Side Effects of Kindness, acts of kindness release the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin causes the release of nitric oxide, which in turn reduces your blood pressure. Yes, there is science to being nice online!
In an age when cyberbullying, fake news, and negative headlines dominate, this is our chance to change things. Let’s be likeable together.
Ready to join the movement? Sign the pledge at BeLikeableDay.com.
This content was originally published here.